...end of June adventures

Hello my friends and family:

I wanted to share some of our new adventures with you. The "boys" had poker night the other night so us "girls" decided to have a pizza night. We made the pizza, no Dominos delivery crap for us! Even the dough was homemade!


Here is fair Auria working on her masterpiece. I forgot to get pictures of the younger ones creating their works of art, but I did get pictures of the finished product. Drool worthy, don't you think?


Our friends, Michelle and her gorgeous, and well behaved daughters joined us for our pizzafest. Their dad, Mitch, was downstairs with the "boys" (who, by the way, ordered their pizzas). The girls set up a picnic outside and seemed to have a blast. Every last piece of pizza was devoured.



On Friday, Aislinn had her Grade 5 Leaving Ceremony, she is going to middle school next year. Mackendra and I enjoyed watching her walk across the stage to receive her certificate.



What was even better was listening to this speech she gave. Aislinn wrote the speech entirely by herself and when her teacher read it, asked her if she would read it at the ceremony. It was an excellent speech. She was so proud of herself. I was pretty proud of her as well. Take a listen.



After the ceremony, we had the chance to take some pictures with some of Aislinn's friends and Aislinn holding her certificate. Another diploma to frame I guess.



The last little adventure we went on this last weekend was our hike up the "Coquitlam Crunch". It is a 2.5 km hike up the powerlines. It was a pretty good test for Mackendra. We wanted to see how she would do on a hike. She did complain a little, but for the most part, she was a trooper. Tuck of course was in heaven.



Oh...see...I was there as well. Proof. Hi everyone.



And the kids got one of Frank and I together. We don't get many of those types of pictures.

We had to take a stop at the playground at the bottom of course. Mackendra and Aislinn reverted into their natural personas and became monkeys.



It was an excellent weekend. Next weekend we will be stuck in a gym the entire time watching and coaching Aislinn at a basketball tournament. School will be over and Summer will have officially have begun for the Johnson-Konig family.

What has everyone been up to? What are your plans for the Summer holidays?

Ciao

Tanya

Ahhhhh.....Summer!!!

Hello dear friends and family,

Summer is almost upon us, and it has been so beautiful here in Vancouver, BC that it feels as if it has already been here for 2 weeks. We have been experiencing the most gorgeous days. It isn't too hot, about 25 degrees Celsius (that's about 77 degrees Farenheit for my "south of the border" friends), sunny with blue skies, but with a refreshing breeze. Truly, the are not many places that are as beautiful as Vancouver in the summer.

So...the kids had their Sports Day last week. I LOVED Sports Day as a kid. I think I looked forward to that day the entire school year. It helped that I was quite athletic. I'm sure some kids dreaded that day. You know, those unfortunate kids that just had no athletic ability at all...the ones that always got picked last for teams? I was never in that situation. Sports Day was the day for those kids, like me, who were fleet of foot and competitive to the extreme. We ran as fast as we could, we jumped as high and as far as we could, we climbed ropes, threw bean bags, tried to pop balloons, clambered through obstacle courses, and literally jumped through hoops. Our coveted prize? Those strips of ribbon, red for first place, blue for second, and yellow for third (or some alternative). At each station, you had the chance to win one of those ribbons. And at the end of the day...you counted them up and compared them to your friends/competition. What a spectacular tradition....

...but wait a second...what is this? This...this is Sports Day? NO!!!! This is not what I remember, this is nothing like what we did as kids. What happened to the competition? What happened to the fierce determination of kids to beat their classmates? What happened to the ribbons? I don't get it. This is not Sports Day...this is more like...I don't know....Cooperation Day...or Everyone Wins Day. This does not work for me. Ok...I understand that some kids and parents (probably parents more than kids) would oppose competition. They would be uncomfortable with the notion that someone might get their feelings hurt, or feel discouraged if they didn't win...but seriously...COME ON!!!! Since when is winning a bad thing? When did talent turn into something that had to be restrained? When did we think that kids shouldn't learn how to lose at something? When I was a kid, we knew who was going to win the race, we also knew who was going to ace the math test. You don't see parents asking schools to make sure everyone gets the same grade, do you? COME ON people...real life doesn't make these concessions, kids don't need to be protected, they need to be exposed to that reality. I want my kids to learn to be competitive. I want them to learn how it feels to win, to be victorious, to earn a "ribbon". I want them to hunger for that feeling. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "win at all costs" and that "winning is everything", most of you know me better than that...but you know what...winning is pretty important. Letting kids compete at sports will not scar them forever. Losing the foot race in grade 3 does not make them a loser in life. A little competition makes things exciting. Who agrees with me?

Anyways, my kids did have fun at their Sports Day. The teachers and volunteers came up with some inventive games, like the "race to put together the computer" game (kinda cool, and Frank thought was fabulous). I did like how the entire school was divided into 4 different colored teams, all the grades mixed up, and the older kids were expected to help the younger kids. That was awesome. But I missed the thrill of the race. Don't judge me.



On a different subject...but also to do with summertime...

We went camping again. Our friends, Mitch and Michelle and their two girls invited us to go camping with them at Alice Lake (near Squamish).

Here are some pictures of our drive along the Sea to Sky Highway. This is the highway that is being redone to accomodate all the traffic that is sure to come with the 2010 Winter Olympics that are taking place in Vancouver and Whistler. Squamish is smack dab, right between the two cities.



The trip is beautiful, it winds along sea cliffs. It is very twisty in some places, kinda reminded me of driving in WV. Frank took the wheel so I could enjoy the view.

He he he...Frank didn't know I was taking his picture as I was taking scenery pictures.

Here are my brats, Tuck had to share the backseat with them, and we only heard, "how much longer?" about 3 or 4 times. Not bad.

I don't know what they were doing. Aislinn doesn't usually look this stunned.



Ohhhhh! This is "the Stawamus Chief". It is reported to be the second largest monolith in the world. Don't ask me what a monolith is. Actually, do...I looked it up. I'm geeky like that. Here it is...plagarized right from Wikipedia...

A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are most often made of very hard and solid metamorphic or igneous rock.

It's pretty impressive, whatever it is called. I'll have to tell you about the time Frank and I climbed to the top of that monolith. In flipflops, with no water, slightly unprepared and hurting because of it.


Here it is closer up. It is much more impressive in real life. It is situated right above Squamish. What a sight to see every day huh?

So, I didn't take many pictures of us camping. Michelle had a much better camera than me, and I am going to get her to send me some. We did have a blast though, the campsite was so clean and quiet and well maintained, and expensive, but worth it. We haven't paid for camping for years. We're spoiled. The place was paved and the kids brought their bikes, so the four girls were gone most of the time. It was great. There was this little lake, that was warm enough to swim in, so we spent the entire day on the beach. Frank even swam to the other side and back. Impressive. And no, I am not going to post any pictures of myself in my bathing suit. But here are some of other people in theirs! He he he...

I think Mackendra has discovered a new passion. She borrowed the snorkle gear and spent the entire day "snorkl-ing" around.

That's Michelle and Frank and some of our kids soaking up the rays. It was sunny, but there was a strong wind, and as a result, when you came out of the water, it was chilly.


My daughter is gorgeous. Did I ever tell you that? Shhhh...don't tell her though.


Here is a beautiful picture that Aislinn took early one morning.


So, I will leave you with one more picture....


And say it all together...."Awwwwwww..."

Talk to you later.

...what we've been up to...

Let's see.. what have I been doing the last few weeks....

We went camping with my brother, Darren and his girlfriend, the beautiful Auria. We loaded up our SUV with all the gear needed for 6 people and 1 dog and drove for 2 hours up a mountain only to find out that our favorite campground was completely packed. There must have been some graduation parties or something, because I have never seen so many people camping there. I am not lying when I say, there were about 4 or 5 vehicles PER campsite with people camping on the beach. It was absolutely crazy and definitely not the right atmosphere for young kids. We thought we would have to forget about camping and drive all the way home. But...we decided to drive down some side roads and found this absolutely charming, secluded spot, under a bridge on a little stream. We had it all to ourselves.



We set up camp. This was the first time the kids had their own tent...which meant....Frank and I had our own tent. It was great, our dog, Tuck, stayed with them and I felt comfortable with the setup.



We had a pretty sweet campsite.

And check out our river. The only problem with the river was that as it was our first set of really warm days this season, the river began to rise...and I was just in a flood in WV, so I was a little nervous. But it was fine. It was a really pretty river and the sound of rushing water blocked out the sounds of partying from the nearby campsite.



Darren tried his hand at fishing, and he caught this tiny little thing about 10 minutes into it, so he let it go....the only thing was...he never caught anything else, the rest of the weekend. Should have kept that fish, I guess.



So...the only drawback to our campsite...no outhouses...but Auria and I took care of it. We started digging, and then I found this handy chair frame, and this is what we rigged up....



It worked fabulously. And Auria and I got out of dishes by simply pointing out the fact that we built the bathroom. He he he.

I can't wait for the next camping trip.

Frank and I have started working on our backyard....well...to be honest, its mostly been Frank. I have never claimed to enjoy gardening and I think both of us have decided that yardwork is not our forte. There is just so much work to do....it is quite daunting...



And this is Tuck. He is just so darn cute. He was in the process of shaking, but he looks like he is grinning here. What an awesome dog.



What else? Aislinn has been busy with school science projects...this year is "Which molds faster? Bread, cheese or strawberries." She has also been busy with basketball. Aislinn and Mackendra just finished swimming lessons and they are looking forward to the end of school and the beginning of summer up in Prince George with Pau pau and Grandpa.

I did go with Mackendra to "Maplewood Farms" for a school trip yesterday. Remind me not to volunteer for those things again. It was hot, it was kinda boring, and there were way too many kids. But the kids were cute.



Almost as cute as the goats. And they smelled marginally better.


Well...that's about it for now.

Love Tanya